Food allergies have increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011 and currently affect 15 million Americans.

The culprit, at least for some, are antibiotics:

It seems that to prevent this number from rising, people need to learn that children can still have a good chance of living healthy lives even if they aren’t pumped with so many antibiotics as infants.

NYU medical researchers may have discovered a cure for food allergies in the form of a bacterial solution that undoes the effects of childhood medications that cause the allergies to develop.

According to Science, the team first found that the children at the highest risk of becoming allergic to everything from peanuts to milk were those who had been given more than the average amount of antibiotics.

Humans naturally produce a bacteria somewhere around the stomach that prevents allergic reactions, but regular use of antibiotics at very young ages has been proven to kill this bacteria.

The researchers confirmed this by administering antibiotics to a group of infant mice, which turned out to be more likely to have allergic reactions to peanuts than infant mice that weren’t given antibiotics.

But then they gave the antibiotic mice a solution filled with Clostridia, a bacteria mice naturally produce that has the same function as the aforementioned human bacteria formed in the gut.

The mice’s allergic reactions to peanuts were eliminated shortly after, with the bacteria keeping the peanut proteins away from the bloodstream.

Immunologist Cathryn Nagler and her team at the University of Chicago have filed a patent application for the results.

She told Science that she intends to “interrupt [the allergy] process by manipulating the microbiota” by possibly making a pill featuring Clostridia.

This is totally awesome! I really hope it works. My son developed allergies as a result of taking a host of broad-spectrum antibiotics as an infant because of his constant ear infections. The doctors kept prescribing them and we kept giving it to him - not realizing until much later the detrimental effects of so many antibiotics. Most parents don't realize it either. Antibiotics for life-threatening illnesses: good idea. Antibiotics for babies every time they have an ear infection: not a good idea.